A former coal mine within the Alberta Rockies is releasing a contaminant poisonous to fish at charges greater than dozens of instances greater than federal and provincial pointers, whereas one other periodically disgorges water so iron-heavy it stains native creeks orange, analysis says.
The findings, by provincial authorities scientists who weren’t made obtainable to talk to reporters, elevate questions on who’s liable for cleansing up legacy industrial websites.
“Our outcomes reveal novel proof that coal mining actions within the Crowsnest River watershed have been impacting ecosystems downstream for many years,” says the paper, revealed just lately within the journal Environmental Air pollution.
Its three authors, all employed by Alberta Surroundings and Protected Areas when the analysis was performed, studied the Grassy Mountain and Tent Mountain websites in southwestern Alberta.
Each websites have seen important, although intermittent, coal mining. Grassy Mountain had floor and underground exercise from 1910 to 1975 and Tent Mountain was floor mined from 1948 to 1983.
Operations at Tent Mountain, now the positioning of a proposed renewable power undertaking, piled a long time of waste rock adjoining to a retention pond feeding water into the Crowsnest River.
“A community of rill marks evident down the face of the waste rock pile attest to the long-term motion of floor water down (and thru) the waste rock pile and straight into Pond 3A,” the paper says.
That pond now has concentrations of selenium — a component extremely poisonous to fish, impairing their capability to breed — that vary from 112 to 185 micrograms per litre.
The governments of Canada, america and Alberta say the secure restrict for selenium to guard aquatic life is between one and two micrograms.
Pond 3A drains into Crowsnest Creek, which runs by a wetland on the base of Tent Mountain. A lot of the selenium stays there.
“Selenium bioaccumulates in aquatic habitats and might be poisonous to fish and wildlife on the concentrations noticed,” says the paper.
Downstream of that wetland, simply earlier than the creek flows into Crowsnest Lake, selenium concentrations have been nonetheless at or above higher limits, generally 4 instances the Alberta guideline.
The paper says selenium within the lake is elevated in contrast with unaffected streams within the space.
Grassy Mountain, the place one firm hopes to restart coal mining, is creating fewer selenium issues as a result of waste rock is extra broadly dispersed, says the paper. However in July 2022, the scientists famous an issue in a close-by creek.
“For a quick 48-hour interval, water high quality in Blairmore Creek modified markedly and the water turned a rusty orange color,” the paper says.
The workforce tracked the rusty water to an outdated mine entrance and measured its iron content material at practically 30 instances federal pointers.
“This discharge occasion was presumably as a consequence of an unknown (pure) hydrologic driver,” says the paper. “Periodic orange-water discharge occasions have been famous because the Seventies.”
The Canadian Press contacted Alberta Surroundings on Jan. 15 to request an interview with the authors, two of whom stay public staff.
A spokesman mentioned the scientists weren’t obtainable and requested for an inventory of questions. A listing was offered Friday, however no response was obtained, together with to a query about why the scientists couldn’t converse to their analysis.
The third creator, now working within the U.S., mentioned he wouldn’t speak about his analysis for worry of authorized reprisal from the province.
In Alberta, the possessors of a improvement allow for a web site are liable for earlier environmental liabilities.
Tent Mountain is at the moment lined by a allow owned by Evolve Energy, which hopes to make use of Pond 3A for water storage in a pumped hydro undertaking.
Evolve didn’t reply to a request to touch upon the way it plans to remediate selenium issues.
The earlier allow holder, Montem Sources, did have a plan to remediate selenium from its proposed coal mine, but it surely’s not clear how, or if, the plan applies to the present undertaking.
Grassy Mountain is at the moment being explored for coal by Australian-owned Northback Sources, which hopes to reopen the positioning for mining.
Federal regulation prohibits the discharge of supplies “deleterious to fish” into fish-bearing waters. The creeks flowing from each websites are the headwaters of many trout streams, together with endangered native species, which already face threats from infections comparable to whirling illness.
“(Surroundings Canada) is conscious of the historic coal mines at Grassy Mountain and Tent Mountain and has performed a number of inspections on the Grassy Mountain mine,” mentioned spokeswoman Nicole Allen in an electronic mail.
“If … enforcement officers discover proof of an alleged violation of the air pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act, they’ll take acceptable motion.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 30, 2024.
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
